A Trump associate reportedly set up a secret meeting to establish a back-channel between Trump and Moscow

Blackwater
Chief Executive Erik Prince testifies before the House Oversight
and Government Reform Committee.REUTERS/Larry Downing

Days before President Donald Trump's inauguration, Blackwater
founder Erik Prince met with a Russian close to President
Vladimir Putin in the Seychelles islands to create a
communication back-channel between Trump and Russia,
according to The Washington Post.

Officials with the United Arab Emirates brokered the January 11
meeting in the hopes of helping to encourage Russia to distance
itself from Iran, a major Kremlin ally. The Trump administration
has often expressed its skepticism of Iran, and Trump often
derided the US nuclear deal with Iran on the campaign trail.

A former intelligence official in the Obama administration who
met with Trump transition officials told the Post that
"separating Russia from Iran was a common theme" on Trump's team.
The Trump administration sees Iran as a threat to the US, and
both Iran and Russia have been working to expand their power in
the Middle East in recent years.

Prince reportedly approached Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed
al-Nahyan, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, after Zayed met with
Trump transition officials in New York in December. That meeting
included former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and
current Trump administration advisers Steve Bannon and Jared
Kushner.

Despite not having an official role with the transition, Prince
reportedly told Zayed that he was authorized to act as an
unofficial surrogate for Trump. He then asked Zayed to set up a
meeting with the Russian, whom sources did not identify to the
Post.

Prince is known to have close connections to the Trump
administration. He donated $250,000 to support the Trump campaign
last year, has close ties to Bannon, is the brother of Education
Secretary Betsy DeVos, and was seen in the Trump transition
offices in December, according to the Post.

US officials told the Post that the FBI is looking into the
Seychelles meeting as part of its investigation into ties between
Trump associates and Russia. White House press secretary Sean
Spicer told the Post that the administration was "not aware of
any meetings and Erik Prince had no role in the transition."

A spokesman for Prince said the meeting "had nothing to do with
President Trump."

"Why is the so-called under-resourced intelligence community
messing around with surveillance of American citizens when they
should be hunting terrorists?" the spokesman said in a statement
to the Post.

But the Post noted that Prince would have been the ideal
go-between for the Trump administration, the UAE, and Russia
considering his connections to high-ranking Emiratis. He moved to
the UAE in 2010 and has done work for the country's government.

And Zayed had the necessary connections to Russia — he reportedly
met with Putin twice in 2016.

It's possible that Trump's team signed off on the secret
Seychelles meeting, according to an American businessman who
knows Zayed.

Zayed "is very cautious," the source said, adding there "had to
be a nod" from aides to Trump and Putin before Zayed would feel
comfortable arranging the meeting.

The Intercept
reported earlier this year that Prince was "lurking in the
shadows of the incoming Trump administration" as an unofficial
adviser. Prince's wife reportedly posted photos from Trump's
campaign headquarters on election night.

Trump associates have been under scrutiny for their connections
to Russia. The intelligence committees in both the House and
Senate are investigating Russian interference in the 2016
election, and the FBI has its own probe as well.

UPDATE: A spokesman for Prince sent this
additional statement to Business Insider:

"This proves once again the disastrous folly of allowing
permanent seditious bureaucrats to be empowered with intelligence
gathering tools with which they cannot be trusted to defend
America. They are violating their oath to defend the
constitution. They must be rooted out and fired."

"If the politically fabricated delusion of President-elect Trump
and President Putin’s coordination was true, why would anyone
need to meet me anyway?"